https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375 DisplayFusion RSS: When Changing Monitor Profiles (Outside of or Using DF itself), Windows Explorer Freezes For a Few Seconds and May Even Crash Sun, 19 Apr 2026 18:08:09 GMT en hourly 1 https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375 https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#9 Tue, 06 Oct 2020 16:41:57 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#9 DisplayFusion Hello,

Very interesting! Thanks for the follow up! ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#8 Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:41:43 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#8 DisplayFusion Hello again,

I just wanted to let you know that by pure chance I just figured out what the cause of the problem was, and that I was able to give application hooks back to explorer.exe without any Explorer crashes.

I had 200+ folders on the desktop which I recently moved to a different folder. I don't have icons enabled and only use the start menu so I didn't really notice or think much of it. However, it appears that Windows will still internally sort and re-arrange all those icons when changing monitors and that's the root cause of this issue, because after I moved all folders out of my Desktop folder, changing monitors became noticably more instant (from about three seconds down to not even a fraction of a second)

That gave me the idea to also try and re-enable application hooks, and indeed, there's no more crashes. I don't know why Explorer only crashes when also being hooked by DF in addition to having a ton of desktop icons, but there you go. In case anyone else has this problem, this is your solution ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#7 Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:57:59 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#7 DisplayFusion Your suggestion worked, Explorer no longer crashes or freezes when changing monitor profiles, and the "Keep Game Window in Focus" functionality also still works. Thank you very much! ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#6 Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:55:29 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#6 DisplayFusion Hello,

Sounds good, keep me posted! ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#5 Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:49:25 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#5 DisplayFusion Sorry I forgot to mention this: Yes, that is something I've tried before, and the issue does go away without Application Hooks, but unfortunately disabling Application Hooks causes the "Prevent Game Windows From Losing Focus" function to no longer work, one of the main reasons I use DisplayFusion.

This problem didn't exist with Application Hooks previously, hence I've been looking for what changed on my system that causes the issue.

Is it perhaps possible to disable application hooks only for the Windows Explorer and Desktop Window Manager?

EDIT: Sorry, I skimmed your reply and only read it thoroughly after posting. I will try your suggestion, thank you!

I was dumb and misread the reply, see my next post ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#4 Wed, 23 Sep 2020 16:36:44 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#4 DisplayFusion Hello,

Could you try opening the compatibility tab in Display Fusion, adding file explorer, and checking off "Disable Application Hooks"?

Let me know how that works for you.

Thanks! ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#3 Tue, 22 Sep 2020 18:04:00 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#3 DisplayFusion Thanks for the tip, I installed the beta but unfortunately the problem is still the same.

The desktop being unresponsive isn't a big deal except for the fact that it can crash the Explorer. I'm thinking about switching to a third-party program for copying files for the time being.

The only idea I have is that there may be a program or service interfering with DisplayFusion, so maybe I'll try terminating programs one by one and see if I can find a culprit. I was hoping there's an easier way to figure out why DisplayFusion causes the Windows Explorer to freeze/crash. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#2 Tue, 22 Sep 2020 15:38:55 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375#2 DisplayFusion Hello,

Could you try updating to our latest beta? We've fixed a handful of issues with Monitor configurations. Here's the link: https://www.displayfusion.com/Download/Beta/

Let me know how that works for you! ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375 Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:24:48 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/when-changing-monitor-profiles-outside-of-or-using-df-itself-windows-explorer-freezes-for-a-few-seconds-and-may-even-crash/?ID=f6009bc4-1ee8-427d-9696-8d8bf0b55375 DisplayFusion This issue started happening a few months ago. I installed and checked it with the older 8.0 version of DisplayFusion but it still happens so it's safe to say it is related to changes unrelated to DF. However, this freeze/crash doesn't occur when DisplayFusion isn't running.

It's annoying because I frequently switch from desktop monitor usage to my TV, which is something that used to be snappy and instant but with DF running I have to wait ten seconds or more before Windows becomes usable again.

What happens in detail I'm not sure. All I can say is, whenever I change my monitor profile, Windows Explorer will become unresponsive for several seconds, as indicated by the mouse cursor showing the "unresponsive" sign when hovering over the desktop. If I dare to click on the desktop at any time while it is frozen, Windows Explorer will instantly crash and restart itself. This will close all open Explorer windows, reload the taskbar etc. and it's a huge problem and risk while copying files using Explorer as this copy process will also be terminated.

I haven't reported it until now but I'm out of ideas what could be causing this issue. I don't know what I could do to help to narrow this problem down. ]]>